Travers Smith CSR Programme 2019-20 Contents

Professional development 6

CSR Art awards 10

University of Westminster artworks 20

Royal College of Art artworks 32

Purchasing work 56

Final words 62 Foreword

A very warm welcome to the fifth year of Once again, this year’s Programme features an exciting the Travers Smith CSR Art Programme, in partnership with the Serpentine Galleries, who will be partnership with the University of Westminster working with us in supporting the professional development and the of Art. of participating artists. This partnership will complement our continued offering of professional development The Art Programme sits right at the heart of our Corporate opportunities, including training with our intellectual Social Responsibility work and highlights our commitment property, tax and commercial contract lawyers, workshops to CSR from the moment someone enters our offices. Now on business skills, and pro bono legal advice relevant to in its fifth year, we are delighted not only to be expanding pursuing a career as a professional artist. our collection, but also to be able to support a larger cohort of student artists. On behalf of the CSR Art Committee and together with all the partners and staff here at Travers Smith, I look forward to welcoming you to our offices to see the collection in situ. We very much hope you will enjoy the diverse and exciting work on display.

Donald Lowe CSR Partner

3 CSR

Our award-winning CSR Programme is diverse, exciting and ever expanding. Its success is underpinned by the passion of our people, and in turn, the Programme gives us all the chance to share knowledge, experience and acquire new skills. We engage with diverse audiences and communities, which helps encourage all our people to be individual, and to recognise their position not only within the business world, but also within wider society.

Our three key objectives in this area are as follows:

Working with local Pro bono – Charities 1 communities 2 access to justice 3 Programme We work with our local communities, We undertake a number of pro bono Our partnership provides substantial developing meaningful ties with initiatives designed to give individuals financial support to a major charity schools, universities, youth projects and organisations, both at home and partner over a two year period. Our and community groups, and use our abroad, the opportunity to access current partner for 2018-20 is Contact influence to help give people better levels of legal advice that would not the Elderly; a charity which seeks opportunities to access the legal normally be obtainable for them. to enrich the lives of the elderly by profession. providing social gatherings across the UK. The Travers Smith Foundation also enables us to support even more charities, local communities, and not-for-profit organisations by issuing small grants and donations. This Art Programme, and our relationship with the University of Westminster and the Royal College of Art, is an important part of our CSR objective to engage, support and nurture our local communities. As well as showcasing and facilitating the sales of students’ work, we will also be providing pro bono advice and training to assist with the transition from student life to professional practice.

5 Professional development: Artist engagement

One of the drivers of our CSR Art Programme is to support the artists as they transition from student life to professional practice. Participating in the CSR Art Programme has been a great Throughout the year, we run a series of experience for me as it has raised my awareness of the sessions aimed at equipping emerging business side of the creative industry. artists with the tools to help their careers Jake Gill, University of Westminster to flourish. These include: training with our intellectual property, tax and commercial contract lawyers, workshops on business skills, and pro bono legal advice relevant to being a professional artist.

We are also acutely aware of the challenges which many graduates face, including economic insecurity and increasingly competitive job markets. In order to Taking part in the Programme helped me with the help bridge this gap, and to complement our own development of my professional skills. The firm was professional development programme, we also offer instrumental in the negotiations of my artist contract commercial opportunities to some of the participating and they paired me with an experienced who helped me to navigate and understand the jargon and artists. These can range from corporate and event complexities of legal documents. photography, to developing and leading -based workshops for our own staff and partners. Radek Husak, Royal College of Art Interview with artist Gökhan Tanriöver in alumni newsletter smithfield

Artist Alex Devereux leads a workshop at our Partners Retreat

7 Professional development: Serpentine Galleries

As part of Travers Smith’s broad commitment to artists and communities, we also develop partnerships with external organisations. These not only offer participating artists with valuable exposure to professional environments, but also extend Travers Smith’s support of opportunities for artists and access to arts and culture in our wider community.

We are delighted with our ongoing partnership with the Serpentine Galleries, . One of the most successful and influential galleries in Europe – offering free admission to its year-round exhibition programme. The Serpentine shares the same values as Travers Smith in seeking to nurture emerging talent and engage diverse local audiences through art, architecture, and education.

We look forward to working with the Serpentine Galleries in supporting the professional development of this year’s participating artists. CSR artists visiting the Serpentine Pavilion – October 2017 Travers Smith has manifested an extraordinary engagement commitment and interest in art through its collection, which is entirely dedicated to recent graduates of art courses. By investing in art of the young generation, it is not only able to have a dynamic collection, but also provide a vital support at a crucial stage of the artists’ practice. Travers Smith’s commitment to promoting artists and providing access to the arts is extended through its support of the Serpentine Galleries and we are delighted to engage with its unique and impactful CSR Programme.

Natalia Grabowska, Assistant , Serpentine Galleries, London

Travers Smith’s CSR Art Programme offers artists an exceptional level of support at one of the most significant moments in the development of their practice. The programme stands out for its extended investment in and dedication to the recent graduates involved in the process each year, as well as a deep understanding of the practicalities of working as an artist today. It has been a pleasure to engage with the work of these emerging practitioners within the context of Travers Smith’s collection, and to encompass exciting new directions that are both challenging and thought provoking. This sentiment is very much in line with the Serpentine’s remit as an open landscape for art and ideas, as we are delighted to continue this meaningful collaboration with Travers Smith.

Joseph Constable, Assistant Curator, Serpentine Galleries, London

9 Travers Smith CSR Art awards

Each year, a panel of external expert judges award a cash prize to an exhibiting artist from both the University of Westminster and the Royal College of Art. We also award an additional cash prize to the winner of our firm-wide popular vote. Previous winners 2018 - 2019

11 Sooyeun Lee On The Genealogy Of Mortality RCA to Royal College of Art, MA Textiles Winner of the Travers Smith Senior Partner award Jake Kehar Gill Toeing The Line University of Westminster, BA Photography Winner of the Emerging Talent award

13 Yushi Li Your Reservation Is Confirmed (Garden) Royal College of Art, MA Photography Winner of the Popular Vote award Highly commended 2018 - 2019

15 Leanne Wiggers Human Between Immortal Border University of Westminster, BA Photography Highly Commended Emma Stevenson Altered Lands University of Westminster, BA Photography Highly Commended

17 Yushi Li Your Reservation Is Confirmed (Garden) Royal College of Art, MA Photography Highly Commended Alvin Ong Nighthawks Royal College of Art, MA Painting Highly Commended

19 University of Westminster

Artists selected from: BA Mixed Media Fine Art BA Photography The artists

Myles Burnip Emma Murphy BA Photography BA Photography Bella Hall Goda Marija Norkute BA Fine Art Mixed Media BA Photography Abhishek Joshi Finley Perkins BA Photography BA Fine Art Mixed Media Karina Kaye Hannah Salvidge BA Fine Art Mixed Media BA Photography Melakas Sorin Bogdan Sofian BA Photography BA Photography

21 Myles Burnip

University of Westminster, BA Photography Location: Dining Room Corridor

Myles Burnip is predominately concerned with portraiture and the study of sociological and anthropological structures. A working theme of intimacy, parody and mimesis underline his photographic study.

His work examines the fading conceptions of masculinity and asks its place within the modern age of acceptance and individuality. Is masculinity still a term associated with the preconceptions of the previous century? By examining the relationship that modernity plays on those who identify as men, Myles is able to question what we really mean by masculinity, and does this have room to grow in our contemporary societal structures.

If I were a flower, where would I grow? Matte c-type print 41 x 41cm (each) Guide price: Each piece: £250 Series of 5: £1,100 Bella Hall

University of Westminster, BA Fine Art Mixed Media Location: Dining Room Corridor (Untitled Blue), Snow Hill Ground Floor Reception (Thorns of Christ)

Bella Hall’s practice takes a playful approach to painting which graphically engages with contemporary abstraction through exploring the formal elements of a painting. Bella plays with illusions between 2D and 3D shapes in order to create a visually stimulating composition with both depth and flatness. Bella’s intuitive process of working explores the juxtaposition between spontaneous and controlled gestures which create unforeseen visual relationships which 1 challenge the sense of space.

1 Untitled blue Acrylic on canvas 150 x 150cm Guide price: £950

2 Thorns of Christ Acrylic and oil stick on canvas 220 x 220cm Guide price: £1,750

2

23 Abhishek Joshi

University of Westminster, BA Photography Location: M2

Abhishek Joshi is attracted to photographing and documenting nature and landscapes. His project Black Park explores these interests.

The park, located in South Buckinghamshire, is a prime example of our ability to manage and control nature. Black Park is littered with pathways and indicates the management done to this vast nature reserve over the years.

Black Park Digital c-type print 75 x 60cm (each) Guide price: £350 (each) Edition of 4 and 1 artist proof (each) Karina Kaye

University of Westminster, BA Fine Art Mixed Media Location: Auditorium Reception

Karina Kaye is interested in the human body. Her work explores the body’s interior in relation to the exterior environment which surrounds it.

These paintings explore the human figure, representation, and spirituality.

1 Perhaps, in my next life, when I become a cat… Acrylic and engraving on wood 100 x 120cm Guide price: £2,700

2 Revised Acrylic and engraving on wood 90 x 120cm Guide price: £2,500 1 2

25 Melakas

University of Westminster, BA Photography Location: M8

In her use of self-portraiture, Melakas uses photography as a visual tool to process her ever- evolving self-expression and the manifestation of how she perceives herself.

This series explores Melakas processing her diagnosis with Borderline Personality Disorder. From a young age, books and cinema have deeply inspired 1 her creativity as her first impulse for self-portraiture is to convey a character while creating an ambiguous scene.

1 Thrive and solidify Digital c-type print 84 x 59cm Guide price: £300

2 Might as well dance on 2 my own ashes Digital c-type print 42 x 30cm Guide price: £60

3 Passivity of the side view Digital c-type print 42 x 30cm Guide price: £60

3 Emma Murphy

University of Westminster, BA Photography Location: Dining Room Corridor

Emma Murphy’s artistry comes from everyday living. She enjoys exploring imagery in different mediums including, analogue, digital, found material and screen printing. Emma is interested in creating imagery that can expand thinking and consciously tries to make her art accessible to all.

Race action resolution Screen print on paper 118 x 80cm (each) Guide price: £580 (each)

27 Goda Marija Norkute

University of Westminster, BA Photography Location: M7

Goda is strongly drawn to confronting textures of the body as well as using experimental processes such as high-resolution scanners in her work.

While being extensively exposed to hair in her daily life, it has awakened feelings of envy, fascination as well as revulsion. The series, Harvest, explores notions of envy, greed and femininity while seeking to examine objects of desire separate from the body.

Harvest Digital c-type print on dibond aluminium 91 x 61cm (each) Guide price: Each piece: £380 Series of 4: £1,440 Finley Perkins

University of Westminster, BA Fine Art Mixed Media Location: Auditorium Reception

Finley Perkins has always been drawn to the mediums of drawing and painting; with a focus on the raw process of the manipulation of reality, and the creation of abstract plains of existence and thought. Finley’s work, Mup and Saucer, is a penultimate visual manifestation of personal feelings of frustration and information overload within modern contemporary life. The layering of collage within his work, represents fragmented thoughts and violent creative outbursts creating contorted and unsettling areas within the work.

Mup and Saucer Acrylic and collage on canvas 130 x 135cm Guide price: £750

29 Hannah Salvidge

University of Westminster, BA Photography Location: M14

Hannah Salvidge works primarily within landscapes and documentaries, usually combining the two. Based in the seaside town of Hastings, Hannah’s most recent project is about memory, re-exploration, re-discovery, and longing for a past version of a place and self. The project documents her return to Hastings, after around 15 years, where she spent a lot of time as a child. Hannah’s explorations led her to questioning the accuracy of her recollections and difficulties often experienced in deciphering between the real and the fabricated when revisiting past memories.

Intermittence C-type print on lustre archive paper 51 x 61cm (each) Guide price: Unframed: £300 (each) Framed: £400 (each) Series of 5 Unframed: £1,300 Series of 5 Framed: £1,800 Edition of 5, 1 artist proof (each) Sorin Bogdan Sofian

University of Westminster, BA Photography Location: M6

Sorin’s most recent series, The Last Place on Earth, was created over four days in the Apuseni Mountains, Romania. It focuses on the social and environmental impact of mining in the small and tight communities that are mostly isolated in the heart of the mountains. 1 2 1 The Yellow View 40 x 40cm Guide price: £180

2 The Submerged Church 48 x 27cm Guide price: £160

3 Tarau Aurel Portrait 59 x 40cm 3 4 Guide price: £200

4 Valea Sesii Settling Basin 48 x 27cm Guide price: £150

5 The Green View 45 x 30cm Guide price: £150 5 6 6 The Abandoned Houses 60 x 45cm Guide price: £250

7 Emil Rosca Portrait 50 x 50cm Guide price: £170

All pieces are direct print on aluminium backing. 7

31 Royal College of Art

Artists selected from: MA Ceramics & Glass MA Contemporary Art Practice MA Painting MA Photography MA Print MA Textiles The artists

Dieter Ashton Aphra O’Connor MA Print MA Ceramics & Glass John Atherton Giulia Parlato MA Print MA Photography Ieva Austinskaitė Emily Platzer MA Photography MA Painting David Barreiro Jhonatan Pulido MA Photography MA Painting Rosie Harriet Ellis Tommy Ramsay MA Photography MA Photography Max Gimson Susan Rocklin MA Painting MA Painting Oliver Harding Fernando M. Romero MA Ceramics & Glass MA Painting Elena Helfrecht Lex Shute MA Photography MA Painting Wenqingao Lei Osaretin Ugiagbe MA Photography MA Painting Zhuohui Li Jinya Zhao MA Painting MA Ceramics & Glass Malgorzata Lisiecka MA Contemporary Art Practice

33 Dieter Ashton

Royal College of Art, MA Print Location: M16

Dieter Ashton’s work derives from a love for colour, pattern and process. These abstract compositions are made in an organic and intuitive manner including photography, digital image manipulation and analogue processes. The colour, form and compositions evolve from a rigorous yet playful experimental process of making and refining, with an emphasis on the physicality of layers.

The works in this series display continuity in the form of repeated visual elements which plays to the strengths of traditional printmaking. In each piece these elements are employed differently. Innovative use of repetition emphasises variation and marks a move towards a more expressive painterly direction for the artist.

Optic Blast (Wave One) Screen print on paper 82 x 111cm Guide price: £900 (each) John Atherton

Royal College of Art, MA Print Location: M15

John Atherton’s work confronts the traditional role of the portrait. He uses the portrait archetype, not as a memorial or commemoration of likeness fixed in time, but portraiture as a catalyst for the personal and private speculations of the viewer.

Atherton’s work is, in a sense, anti- portraiture. The presence of the sitters, the original subjects of the portraits, are hard to detect and decipher amidst the considered confusion of layers of paper, cardboard and misprinted imagery. These ‘layers of time’ are the history of the portrait, but a portrait that has broken down, allowing new memories to be created in the 1 2 process. The ephemeral and utilitarian materials of everyday use, discarded, found, recycled, re-used and appropriated, are employed here as metaphors for the fragmentary nature of memory and the passage of time.

1 Magnus Skoog 2 Mikael Lagerholm 6 colour screen print on paper 6 colour screen print on paper 63 x 83cm 63 x 83cm Guide price: £265 Guide price: £265

3 Peter Svensson Collaged screen printed paper 55 x 80cm

Guide price: £1,235 3

35 Ieva Austinskaitė

Royal College of Art, MA Photography Location: M11

Ieva Austinskaitė’s photographic practice explores the human condition and relationship to public spaces through the documentation of the urban landscape. The street in her work is treated as a studio for unpremeditated situations and juxtapositions, reflecting the liminal nature of the metropolitan environment. 2

1 Sidewalk (1) Chromogenic print mounted on dibond 41 x 51cm Guide price: £450 1

2 Sidewalk (2) Chromogenic print mounted on dibond 76 x 51cm Guide price: £500

3 Sidewalk (3) Chromogenic print mounted on dibond 64 x 51cm 3 Guide price: £500 David Barreiro

Royal College of Art, MA Photography Location: M4

David Barreiro is interested in the way in which labour and play affect social, cultural and psychological development. Though different, they are related sources of experiences, both for individuals and groups. From this perspective, the workplace and the playground constitute places for the construction of self-identity. However, when an activity becomes institutionalised, a structure of rules is defined. Henceforth, the number of possible relationships between the subjects and objects involved decreases, and this function is somehow undermined, as individuals become repositories and drivers of the interests of powerful socio-economic agents. By staging images where familiar actions and conventional uses of objects and spaces are subverted, David attempts to articulate those concerns.

A breach of margins: Untitled 1 inkjet print on archival cotton paper mounted on dibond aluminium frame 108 x 135cm Guide price: £1,700 Edition of 3, 2 artist proofs

37 Rosie Harriet Ellis

Royal College of Art, MA Photography Location: Dining Room Corridor

In 2018 Rosie met her boyfriend Nick, where she began photographing him naked for her photography project. A year into the project Nick retracted his consent and none of the images which had been captured could be seen by anyone. Rosie decided to reshoot the project by casting for a ‘boyfriend’. 12 men were selected and each one replicated the 18 poses from the original project, creating 216 replications of the original projects images. The images use photography to explore, confess, admit and question the strongest feelings we can have, desire and love.

I love you body, I love your body Inkjet print on archival paper 110 x 183cm (each) Guide price: £1,500 (each) Edition of 2 artist proofs (each) Max Gimson

Royal College of Art, MA Painting Location: Auditorium

Max Gimson’s paintings use the fireplace as an antiquated vessel or threshold, the locus from which smoke and fire depart, and with them an obfuscation of half memories, dreams and echoes of subconscious imagery. Similar to staring into a fire and conjuring hallucinations from one’s own imagination, Max attempts to develop form, narrative and structure in his work within the physical and incidental act of painting. Like cupping smoke in one’s hands and then looking 1 inside to see it dissipate into the atmosphere, the images consist of momentary revelations within passages of painterly gesture.

1 The Haze Chamber Oil on canvas 162 x 162cm Guide price: £1,600

2 Posh Rug On Fire Oil on canvas 240 x 150cm Guide price: £3,000

2

39 Oliver Harding

Royal College of Art, MA Ceramics & Glass Location: Meeting Room Corridor

Oliver Harding’s work focuses on an experimental and unpredictable use of glaze and form. Through material investigation Oliver has become aware of letting the material speak for itself and tries to create the notion of chance. Through instinctual understanding of the clay’s reaction during the firing and glaze processes, Oliver reinforces this element of the unexpected and unruly nature within his work.

Finding The Balance Ceramic 56 x 54 x 2cm Guide price: £1,800 Elena Helfrecht

Royal College of Art, MA Photography Location: M3

Elena Helfrecht’s photographic practice revolves around consciousness and its interactions with mental and material environments. She is interested in how inner space is informed and influenced, where it originates and how it can be made visible. By using the photographic process as play, she connects the internal and the external realm and relates individual experiences to a collective history. In Plexus, Elena explores a suppressed and unfamiliar past, entangled with numerous layers of personal and collective history, trauma, memory, and silence. The fabrication of accounts through objects and spaces from her family home reveals bridges between the now and then.

1

1 The Spiral Framed giclée print on archival baryta paper 152 x 102cm Guide price: £1,900

2 Grandma Framed giclée print on archival baryta paper 102 x 68cm Guide price: £1,500

3 Mother Tongue Framed giclée print on archival baryta paper 2 3 77 x 52cm Guide price: £1,300 41 Wenqingao Lei

Royal College of Art, MA Photography Location: Dining Room Corridor

Wenqingao Lei’s work presents a visual exploration into the ambiguity that lies between the space of reality and illusion. Wenqingao attempts to create a sense of absurdity and fluidity of metamorphoses within their work.

This series also questions related issues, including the complex relationships formed between humans and animals, death and dying and photography’s intense connection with our encounters and affiliation with space and time.

1 Lobster Chromogenic print 120 x 101cm Guide price: £2,300 1

2 Octopus Chromogenic print 101 x 120cm Guide price: £2,300 Edition of 3, 2 artist proofs (each)

2 Zhuohui Li

Royal College of Art, MA Painting Location: M9

Zhuohui Li studies the intimate relationship between east Asians and nature since ancient times, as well as the presentation of European landscape under Eastern gaze. She integrates her personal experience and depicts what is observed through the painting practice. The medium she adopts varies from oil on canvas to found objects in her studio produced during painting. Believing that traces and marks are able to carry body memories and individual emotional energy, she has been trying to explore the idea of melting the boundary between human beings and nature.

1 2

1 If I can give you the dusk Oil on canvas 90 x 60cm Guide price: £1,600

2 Like a mirror Oil on canvas 90 x 60cm Guide price: £1,600

3 Train journey Oil on canvas 150 x 100cm Guide price: £3,500

3

43 Malgorzata Lisiecka

Royal College of Art, MA Contemporary Art Practice Location: 5th Floor Reception Area

Malgorzata Lisiecka’s work explores the idea of free choice. It examines the idea that we are forced to believe that originality and the chase for personal goals can make our lives fulfilled. The project highlights the idea of oppressive power and subjugation.

1 Crowd (excerpt) Mixed media 300 x 150 x 200cm Guide price: Not for sale

1 Aphra O’Connor

Royal College of Art, MA Ceramics & Glass Location: 5th Floor Reception Area

The title of this installation, Dynamic Equilibrium, references Piet Mondrian’s thoughts on the unification of form. The bringing together of colour and form in coadunation and equivalence is critical in allowing Aphra to unite sculptural forms and drawn patterns in a new dimension that is both flat and solid.

1 Flexure shift Sculptural ceramic 35 x 19 x 17cm Guide price: £650

2 Torsion intersection Sculptural ceramic 24 x 23 x 24cm Guide price: £650 1 2 3 4

3 Section deliniation Sculptural ceramic 35 x 15 x 23cm Guide price: £650

4 Antipode verge Sculptural ceramic 26 x 24 x 27cm Guide price: £650

45 Giulia Parlato

Royal College of Art, MA Photography Location: M1

Giulia Parlato’s practice revolves around myths, history and object- hood, dealing with themes such as melancholia and disappearance. Giulia is interested in how the meaning of symbols change over centuries to adjust to contemporary society.

This series of work is an examination of the historical space, regarded as a fictional container where an apparent collection of evidence opens up to the fantastic. In this space, the attempt to reconstruct the past falls into phantasmal gaps, where things are generated, used, buried, unearthed, transported and relocated.

Diachronicles Digital c-type print 88 x 121cm (each) Guide price: £1,800 (each) Edition of 5 and 2 artist proofs (each) Emily Platzer

Royal College of Art, MA Painting Location: Auditorium Anteroom

Emily Platzer’s paintings are made by combining pigment and rabbit skin glue, a technique developed from the tradition of distemper. A dual relationship is formed between shamanic practice and the paintings, each practice begins by stating an intention or asking a question, followed by a journey that is both a sensory and imaginative immersion. Made in one sitting, the resulting paintings are experiential journeys, a temporal space which is created between entering and exiting the canvas.

1 And I will hang my head low 1 Pigment and rabbit skin glue on canvas 142 x 147cm Guide price: £2,500

2 Our river met the sea and we are infinitely blue Pigment and rabbit skin glue on canvas 142 x 147cm Guide price: £2,500

2

47 Jhonatan Pulido

Royal College of Art, MA Painting Location: Dining Room Corridor

Jhonatan Pulido’s practice is informed by his Columbian upbringing. His works make reference to the countryside landscapes and the cultural contrast imposed on by the graffiti of illegal armed groups. Through the act of painting his work illustrates the symbolism of resurgence and transcendence made by the members of these Colombian communities.

Memory is a patchwork quilt Oil on canvas 142 x 163cm Guide price: £3,000 Tommy Ramsay

Royal College of Art, MA Photography Location: M10

Tommy Ramsay’s practice is deeply invested in an investigation and questioning of what constitutes painting. His work incorporates a variety of techniques and linguistic devices: colour, materiality, format, history and context. He uses these languages to investigate narrative triggers and possibilities for pictorial space: the role of the internal space of the painting in relation to the ‘real space’ of the wall.

Thought by thought Oil on canvas, oil and screen print on board, 3D printed objects, collage and collage on MDF 200 x 180cm Guide price: £4,500

49 Susan Rocklin

Royal College of Art, MA Painting Location: Auditorium Anteroom

This work is part of a series that explores old and new tropes of the feminine. In this painting Susan enlists a sense of the absurd and the chaotic. Images tumble and mesh with each other to create a free-forming, sensuous drama that is imaginatively liberating. Susan acknowledges ephemerality and flux, using oil paint in layered washes, with occasional impastos. Within the work there is an intent to be open, allowing for the flow of the painting process to inform the painterly marks and compositional form.

Doppelkopf Oil on canvas 215 x 175cm Guide price: £2,200 Fernando M. Romero

Royal College of Art, MA Painting Location: Meeting Room Corridor

This work explores our relationship to communication and information. The quick gestures in magenta oil painting on silk move between painting marks, writing, or the repetitive gestures we consistently do while skipping information on our phones and tablets. This sensation of movement or translation between codes is reinforced by its display, with different stretchers overlapping each other. The resulting palimpsest produces a vibrational effect while the viewer moves around the painting.

Seeing is also a movement (sliding painting) Oil on silk, canvas, stretchers and wood 173 x 197cm Guide price: £3,600

51 Lex Shute

Royal College of Art, MA Painting Location: M12

Lex Shute’s work is a cosmology of entangled researches that are an enquiry into the unknowable. A journey into the labyrinth of consciousness and contingencies that is the quest to understand the world and ourselves. Our outer and inner space.

Lex uses the collusion of optical or psychedelic patterning alongside ‘automatic’ gestural painting as efficacious devices one could use to summon those spaces we cannot describe. With an interest in fictional realities and the unreliability of the narrator, Lex sees her practice as a metaphor for the search for meaning. It is a reflection on the malleability of reality.

Wormed alien prospect Oil on canvas 124 x 94cm Guide price: £1,800 Osaretin Ugiagbe

Royal College of Art, MA Painting Location: Meeting Room Corridor

Osaretin Ugiagbe’s work investigates time and process in regards to a life lived across three major cities; Lagos, Nigeria and New York. Osaretin, now in London, is interested in documents, language, binding and physical labour and how they’ve shaped cultures. His work involves the disintegration and layering of paper and sometimes found objects. With this current series of work, Osaretin explores an ongoing interest in portraiture, where his aim is to consistently attack and re-address the tradition of portraiture.

Heads 2018-2019 Acrylic, acrylic ink, print ink and chalk pastel on handmade paper 30 x 42cm (each) Guide price: £950 (each)

53 Jinya Zhao

Royal College of Art, MA Ceramics & Glass Location: M5

Jinya’s work explores the subtle relationships and tensions between colour, form and structure. Her intention is to playfully explore how glass can affect the viewer’s perception of reality and to engender emotional responses. She uses opaque and transparent layered brown glass to deliberately obscure the interior of the specific enigmatic forms. Jinya combines this with sharp angled metal in combination with soft curved glass to create a heightened sense of material balance.

1 Non-existent existence (i) Glass on metal 33 x 25 x 21cm 1 2 3 Guide price: £1,200

2 Non-existent existence (ii) Glass sculpture on metal 23 x 17 x 12cm Guide price: £1,200

3 Non-existent existence (iii) Glass sculpture on metal 20 x 18 x 10cm Guide price: £1,200 55 Purchasing work

The artworks featured in this year’s collection Each student will receive the full amount from are available for purchase, unless indicated the buyer, we will not charge a commission fee. otherwise. The sale of work is facilitated solely by If you are interested in purchasing any of the Travers Smith and is not associated with other artworks, please contact partner organisations involved in this year’s [email protected] CSR Art Programme. Art Committee

The Travers Smith Art Committee overseeing this programme is composed of people from across the firm, each bringing their own views and experiences.

New members are invited to join the Committee each year to ensure that the range of artworks which are on show remain lively and diverse.

Donald Lowe Mohammed Senouci Sebastian Reger Rachel Wilson Partner Partner Partner Senior Associate

Sarah Robinson Will Sheridan Grace Throssell Olesya Marchenko Associate Associate Trainee Solicitor Trainee Solicitor

57 Art Committee (cont.)

Myles Burnip Bella Hall Abhishek Joshi Karina Kaye

Al Keve Ellie Darsey Stewart Mayhew Melakas Emma Murphy Goda Marija Norkute Finley Perkins Head of Business Development PA Maintenance

Angela Davis Chris Edwards Jason Tessier Hannah Salvidge Sorin Bogdan Sofian Receptionist CSR & Diversity Director CSR & Diversity Executive The artists: University of Westminster

Myles Burnip Bella Hall Abhishek Joshi Karina Kaye

Al Keve Ellie Darsey Stewart Mayhew Melakas Emma Murphy Goda Marija Norkute Finley Perkins Head of Business Development PA Maintenance

Angela Davis Chris Edwards Jason Tessier Hannah Salvidge Sorin Bogdan Sofian Receptionist CSR & Diversity Director CSR & Diversity Executive

59 The artists: The Royal College of Art

Dieter Ashton John Atherton Ieva Austinskaitė David Barreiro Giulia Parlato Emily Platzer Jhonatan Pulido Tommy Ramsay

Rosie Harriet Ellis Max Gimson Oliver Harding Elena Helfrecht Susan Rocklin Fernando M. Romero Lex Shute Osaretin Ugiagbe

Wenqingao Lei Zhuohui Li Malgorzata Lisiecka Aphra O’Connor Jinya Zhao Dieter Ashton John Atherton Ieva Austinskaitė David Barreiro Giulia Parlato Emily Platzer Jhonatan Pulido Tommy Ramsay

Rosie Harriet Ellis Max Gimson Oliver Harding Elena Helfrecht Susan Rocklin Fernando M. Romero Lex Shute Osaretin Ugiagbe

Wenqingao Lei Zhuohui Li Malgorzata Lisiecka Aphra O’Connor Jinya Zhao

61 Final word: University of Westminster

For the fifth year running, Travers Smith has Students and staff, who have taken part in this year’s partnered with the Westminster School of scheme, have immensely enjoyed engaging with the Arts in an innovative Art Programme for Travers Smith team and everyone is excited about the emerging visual artists. upcoming exhibition of the selected work. The graduates also very much appreciated the opportunity to sell their This initiative offers our graduating students a work through the programme. The Westminster School generous opportunity to transition into professional of Art feels privileged to have been chosen to participate life as artists. Selected work is displayed within the in this Programme and is looking forward to a continued prestigious premises of Travers Smith in central London partnership over the coming years. and receives additional public exposure through this publication. As part of this project, the participating students are given pro bono legal advice, along with business support, by members of this internationally established to assist them in setting up their creative careers after art school. Raine Smith, Course Leader, BA Fine Art Mixed Media Westminster School of Art, University of Westminster Final word: Royal College of Art

We are grateful to Travers Smith for so This involves us actively seeking investment to support generously facilitating this opportunity for the infrastructural growth of the RCA, which is essential our students and look forward to an ongoing in order for us to remain at the forefront of new artistic and rewarding relationship with the firm, its thinking, practice and process. clients and associates. We are also engaged in sourcing fee bursaries for students and warmly welcome other schemes, such The Royal College of Art is the world’s number one as this one offered by Travers Smith, to facilitate our ranked university of art and design, and houses the students’ transition to professional careers through the world’s most significant concentration of post-graduate exposure of their work to new audiences as well as the fine art students, researchers and academics. provision of invaluable pro bono legal advice. We are a community of experts, from diverse, creative, intellectual and cultural perspectives, engaged in the pursuit of creative interests in an environment that is a crucible of enquiry and debate. Within the increasingly challenging funding Professor Juan Cruz environment for the arts and education, we are Dean, School of Arts & Humanities committed to do all we can to support our students Royal College of Art as they study with us and beyond their graduation.

63 Cover image: Train journey, Zhuohui Li

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